Eagles penalties vs. Dolphins: NFL fans react to Philadelphia's rare zero-penalty game

Jacob Camenker

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Eagles penalties vs. Dolphins: NFL fans react to Philadelphia's rare zero-penalty game image

The Eagles logged what was easily their most impressive win of the season in a 31-17 victory over the Dolphins on "Sunday Night Football."

Philadelphia's defense was able to log an impressive performance against a high-flying Miami offense. The Eagles limited the Dolphins to just 199 total yards and sacked Tua Tagovailoa a season-high-tying four times en route to the victory.

As stellar as those defensive numbers were for the Eagles, there was one stat that particularly captivated NFL fans from that performance. It was the number of accepted penalties that the Eagles were whistled for during the contest.

MORE: Eagles defense shines in prime-time win over high-flying Dolphins

The Eagles almost entirely avoided penalties during their Week 7 win over the Dolphins. They had a couple of offsetting calls, but by the end of the night, they had zero accepted penalties while Miami had a whopping 10 for 70 yards.

While many viewed this feat as impressive, others were less impressed. Why? Because they believed the officials had missed some obvious calls against the Eagles.

Case and point, James Bradberry got away with a blatant facemask while covering Cedrick Wilson Jr. on a fourth-and-3 late in the third quarter. Miami was incredulous that the veteran cornerback got away with the blatant tug of Wilson's helmet while the receiver was trying to work back toward the ball.

Of course, those begrudging this call have a reason to be upset. But ultimately, it didn't impact the game too much. On the next play, Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts threw a pick-six to Jerome Baker, in a move that many viewed as karmic justice for the missed call.

That's the reason that "ball don't lie" was trending on X (formerly Twitter) in the aftermath of Hurts' interception.

While Dolphins and other NFL fans may have had a reason to be upset with that call, it wasn't a major surprise that the Eagles had played cleanly during the contest. The team entered Sunday's action averaging the seventh-fewest penalties per game in the NFL at 5.7 per game.

MORE: Jaylen Waddle returns to Dolphins vs. Eagles game after suffering back injury

Still, seeing a team have zero accepted penalties is a rare feat at the NFL level. It was just the sixth time that has happened since the start of the 2020 season and 17th time it has happened over the last 10 seasons, per StatMuse.

Date Team Opponent
Oct. 4, 2020 Seahawks Dolphins
Oct. 18, 2020 Buccaneers Packers
Dec. 27, 2020 Packers Titans
Jan. 1, 2022 Packers Lions
Nov. 13, 2022 Chiefs Jaguars
Oct. 22, 2023 Eagles Dolphins

Thus, it's no surprise that many NFL fans took notice of it on social media after it occurred in such a prominent game.

Jacob Camenker

Jacob Camenker Photo

Jacob Camenker first joined The Sporting News as a fantasy football intern in 2018 after his graduation from UMass. He became a full-time employee with TSN in 2021 and now serves as a senior content producer with a particular focus on the NFL. Jacob worked at NBC Sports Boston as a content producer from 2019 to 2021. He is an avid fan of the NFL Draft and ranked 10th in FantasyPros’ Mock Draft Accuracy metric in both 2021 and 2022.